Critical Aggression Prevention System (CAPS)

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting is a prime example demonstrating that existing systems do not work! Do you truly want to prevent future school violence using scientifically-validated methods that produce evidence-based Best Practice results? Here is how . . .

In order to achieve this objective with significant and measurable results, any solution must be tested, evidence-based and should be scientifically validated. The Center for Aggression Management’s Critical Aggression Prevention System achieves all of these solution attributes.

24 years ago, the Center for Aggression Management discovered how to identify someone “on the path to violence.” The most thorough study ever conducted on the topic of violence in schools was a collaboration between the US Secret Service, the Dept of Education and the National Institute of Justice. It was called the “Safe School Initiative Study” and it found that the only “reliable” way to identify a future shooter was to identify someone “on the path to violence.” It is the “Path to violence” that the Center for Aggression Management discovered 24 years ago. We scientifically validated our “Meter of Emerging Aggression” at Eastern Kentucky University seven years ago and over the past two years, with Israeli partners, we have developed a Mobile App Technology that incorporates these skills and knowledge in the palm of your hand. Teachers, students, parents and law enforcement can use this Mobile App Technology to identify someone on the path to violence and thereby prevent bullying, abuse, harassment and violence.

Mental Health Professionals play an important role in preventing future violence, but mental health “illness” and mental health “assessments” are not reliable “predictors” of who the next shooter will be. The Report to the President on Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy, June 13, 2007 states: “Most people who are violent do not have a mental illness, and most people who have mental illness are not violent.” In fact, they found the people with mental illness were typically the victims of this behavior, not the perpetrators of it.

Unfortunately, we live with a “Hard Truth”: from the Moment of Commitment (when an assailant decides to pull his weapon and start shooting) to when the first round is discharged, is just 2 seconds. Within 5 seconds there will be dead, dying and/or wounded victims! There is no security or law enforcement, no matter how well trained that can get on scene in just 2 seconds. The best estimated time for law enforcement to arrive on scene is 6 minutes. They will arrive stepping over those slain during those horrific first few seconds. That is unacceptable! We must get out in front of the horrific Moment of Commitment and our Critical Aggression Prevention System (CAPS) can reliably identify someone on the path to that horrific Moment of Commitment and prevent it.

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Trainer of US Army Special Ops Terrorism Division Calls for Action from Parkland School Board

Orlando, FL – John D. Byrnes, Founder and CEO of Center for Aggression Management proposes the most effective way to prevent incidents such as the Parkland shooting is not gun control or mental health profiling, but rather school boards like Parkland’s making an immediate commitment to creating a common language and process for threat detection and prevention.

In an article describing why mental health assessments can’t reliably predict potential shooters, Byrnes references the Report to the President on Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy. It was noted that most people who are violent do not have a mental illness, but those that are mentally ill are more typically victims of this behavior. Byrnes believes that the dialogue surrounding the Parkland shooting will be most effective when it shifts from mental health assessments or gun control as the solution, to more scientifically-validated and empirical solutions such as threat/aggression management and the creation of a common language and process for detecting and preventing this behavior.

In a study conducted as a collaboration between the US Secret Service, Dept of Education and the National Institute of Justice called the “Safe School Initiative Study”, it was found that the only “reliable” way to identify a future shooter was to identify someone “on the path to violence.” By implementing a process like the Critical Aggression Prevention System (CAPS), a common language and thorough process for assessing a potential threat and reaching someone trained to handle this threat are created. CAPS’s most important contribution is that it determines a person Stage (Level) of Aggression and thus the presumption of threat (Low, Moderate, High Threat Levels), which creates the sense of urgency that was missing from the 45 times that Nikolas Cruz was reported.

While many schools, college campuses, and workplaces have their own Behavior Intervention services in place, many of these programs operate based off of vague reports of “weird” or “menacing” behavior. This completely subjective language fails to effectively target the source of the problem. Byrnes believes that people need to be trained to effectively evaluate communication, body language and behavior in order to encourage a potential aggressor to seek help, or de-escalate the issue themselves.

To publish Byrnes’ article or schedule an interview with Byrnes please call Sarah Bishop with Crank Communications at 407-830-7312 (office) or 631-875-3712 (cell) or e-mail sarah@crankcommunications.com. To learn more visit prevent-aggression.com

About John D. Byrnes

John D. Byrnes is an author, lecturer, veteran (USS Nautilus 571) and founder of the Center for Aggression Management. Byrnes regularly speaks on Behavior Intervention at engagements such as being selected by the US Department of Labor to represent the United States at the Violence as a Workplace Risk Conference in Montreal, Canada, as well as Keynote Speaker at the first Protective Security Conference (ProSecCon). Byrnes authored the NaBITA Threat Assessment Tool, which is now being used by Behavior Intervention Teams in over 177 college and university campuses as well as developed the Critical Aggression Prevention System (CAPS). Byrnes has been interviewed as an expert by major news outlets such as FOX35, WESH, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and more.

About Center for Aggression Management

The Center for Aggression Management was founded by John D. Byrnes in 1993 to provide organizations with Aggression Management skills through training. The Center for Aggression Management developed the Primal and Cognitive Aggression Continua. All of the body language, behavior and communication indicators offer a reliable and definable method of assessing “aggressive behavior”. This identifies and ranks the precursors to bullying, harassment, abuse and violence in order to provide the opportunity to prevent such incidents. The center uses a mobile-based software product called the Meter of Emerging Aggression (MEA). Because the MEA uses no mental health, culture, gender, education, age, or sexual orientation in its aggression assessment, it does not conflict with HIPAA or Privacy regulations.

Visit Prevent-Aggression.com to learn more about the Center for Aggression Management and how to identify Cognitive Aggressors.